Time For The Snow....Tomorrow, I fly back to Pocatello. I've been checking the weather reports and there has only been one day forecasted to have snow. Tomorrow. Fuck. I figure I will be spending some extra time in Salt Lake City. *Sigh...........*Thanksgiving was good, as usual. My aunt stayed up until 1:00 AM cooking the night before, and then got up at 5:00 AM to start the 24 pound turkey. I don't know if we even ate 1/4 of it. Jesus. There was so much food.....I ate too much and had to lay down for awhile to prevent upchucking all of it. Weighed myself before and after, I ate ~2 lbs. My aunt made a few pies too....12 to be exact. That was about one pie per person. This break was good because it gave me a chance to catch up on homework. I listened to 6 Physiology lectures and augmented my notes. I read a medical article and evaluated it. Then I read a chapter on serotonin and made flashcards. And now, today, admist the packing and such, I am going to catch up in Biochem. My parents finally are getting a new computer, so this is my last post on a Compaq ever! They bought a Sony VAIO RB50 with a 17" flat screen. Yay!!! But the best part of all.............*drumroll please*.............they are finally going to spring for DSL!!!!!!!!! No more snail 56k for me. And......no more AOL. That makes me very happy. I hate AOL. It's terrible. And they just don't see what's wrong with it. Hmmm...let's see........It's cutesy and gay, slow, and quirky. That to me means we need something else. Currently eating: BLT and Thanksgiving leftoversCurrently wearing: pajamas and a new USA Team tennis shirt (thanks to my cousin)Current mood: hungry as poopCurrent music: Coldplay- "X&Y"Currently learning about: histone proteinsCurrent footwear: Homer Simpson's face (in houseshoe form)

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12:19 PM

Sunday, November 20, 2005

KINGS RULE!!! (according to their new slogan, anyways)Kenny and I went to the Los Angeles Kings' game last night. It took me 50 minutes to get to his house (usually a 30 minute drive) due to the new freeway they are putting in over in Rialto. Anyhow, we ate at the Hat (mmm.....pastrami and a bag of fries). Then we headed into LA. Once we got close to the Staples Center, there was too much traffic to get on the right freeway. So we ended up in Little Tokyo, then Little Mexico. We stopped into a Domino's to det directions. I swear we were going to get mugged. There was more graffitti on the walls everywhere than paint. In Domino's, they had to find their token English speaker. He came out to give me directions. Here's a quick transcript of what we said:Rico- "Hi, can you give me directions to the Staples Center?"TESM (Token English Speaking Mexican, with a thick accent)- "Uh......Staples Center....Lakers.....like baaassskitboll?"Rico- "Yeah. Can you give me directions there?"TESM- "Uh..........Si.....yes......thet whey in thet road........duex Olym-pick.....meek uh........meek uh rit in Olym-pick.......den you sees lits." Rico- "OK, thanks"Jesus Christ. Well, turns out that TESM didn't know his ass from a two bit piece and we got even more fucked up. We found a cop and he knew exactly how to go. Whew. We got there 10 minutes later, just in time for the national anthem. There was some funny stuff during the game. There are groups that go to hockey games, just like any other sporting event. The cast of '24' was there and the announcer has the job of reading off all the different groups that come. Usually it's like "Joyce Benson and Friends" or "Pedro Sanchez and Amigos" or "All-State Insurance Branch 51," but one name came up as "Michael Kaczmarek" and the announcer added "and no friends." HAHAHA. But the announcer didn't stop there. During intermissions between periods, the zambonis come out and smoothe over the ice by laying down a fine layer of water. And one person gets to ride as a guest as they play the zamboni song ("I want to ride the zamboni, ride the zamboni, ride the zamboni"). The announcer usually says the name of the guest rider and this time he said "Ana from Orange County" before he saw the video of the rider. It was a Hispanic guy. The announcer then said "Whoa.....that's not Ana from Orange County. Well...have a nice ride, whoever you are!" During an intermission (before the zambonis), there was an remote control truck race on the ice. These guys were struggling to keep the trucks even going straight. After the race was progressing slowly, the announcer said "For time's sake and the patient of the fans, we have to cut the race to 1 lap." After one guy finished the one lap, the announcer said "Well, Bob is our winner, but my book, neither one won. Take away their licenses because I think they've had a little to drink!"And during the second intermission (before the zambonis came out), they had a musical chairs game with 5 guys and 4 inflatable chairs. And for added drama, they deflated one chair. Haha. Those guys were sliding all over. One guy tried to dive into a chair and he flipped over the chair and someone stole it off of him. HAHA. The last 2 guys were hilarious though. It was Irwin versus Wade. Wade sat down, only to have Irwin rip it from under him and run and try to sit himself. Irwin sat, slid, and flipped. I was laughing damn hard by now. Anyhow, they gave it to Irwin. My uncle said he knew Irwin would win because they would give him the win since he has had to suffer through life with the name of Irwin. The Kings played pretty well in the 1st and 3rd periods, and ended up winning 4-3. When they scored their last goal, everyone threw their hat onto the ice (it was hat day at Staples). There must have been 500 hats on the ice. It was pretty insane in there for about 10 minutes. People were screaming "Kings Rule" and they were taunting the Colorado Avalanche (especially two players traded from the Kings to the Avalanche). Hockey fans are probably some of the most die-hard and insane fans there are. Well, I should go pet my kitty.Current music: Lifehouse- Self-titled CDCurrent mood: tired

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10:45 AM

Saturday, November 19, 2005

As Promised.....Where to start? I don't even recall what my last post was about (not counting the 2 crappy posts about nothing). So here's a rundown on what I thought was interesting/funny/important to me recently.A couple weeks ago, I got all dolled up in my white coat (pharmacy coat) and I gave 50 flu shots at a flu shot clinic. I thought that was a pretty cool experience. I have to say that being on the giving end of the needle is much better than the receiving end. Although with the new needles this year, the shot wasn't bad for me at all. I was kind of shaky on my first few flu shots, but after doing about 10, I had the routine down pat. Explain the new syringes to the patient while letting the alchol dry on their arm, stab them, pull out on plunger to check if it's in a blood vessel, then push in. The new needles this year made it really easy though. After you push all of the dose into the patient (meaning that the plunger is depressed all the way to the hilt), the needle snaps back into the barrel and protects me from poking myself, as well as protecting the patient from a possible double-poke. The syringes are much less painful and lessen the chance of bleeding as well. So they're pretty nifty and I like 'em a lot. Much better than the ones we learned to use in Pharmacy Practice Lab.So I've gotten a bunch of C's lately. Ugh. I know that C's equal degrees and such, but I hate settling for them especially since I am not used to getting them (or ever having got one, for that matter). I know that pharmacy school is difficult and that they expect a lot of me, but damn. I study a lot (Katie can attest to that) and I give it my best shot. :( I did manage to score the highest grade on my last Physicochemical Basis of Drug Action test though, so that has helped massage my battered ego. I haven't played golf since I left for school....and I haven't even hit golf balls. And I will be playing a bunch over break. Why do I get the feeling that I am going to suck balls?I flew from Pocatello to Salt Lake City to Ontario today. The flight from Pocatello to Salt Lake was fine, except that the plane was a Civil War leftover. Damn.....it sounded like parts were falling off as we flew, and it definitely sounded like something was loose and/or broken on that damn flying tin can. On the flight from Salt Lake to Ontario, I think I sat next to the most oblivious man on the face of this planet. I was wearing my IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY swearshirt and he asked if I went to Boise State University. I just smiled and said, "No, I'm pharmacy student at Idaho State University." I had to resist the urge to grab his head and bury it into my sweatshirt and ask him to ask that question again. And then give him a noogie because it's been awhile since I've given one. But the best part of all, he said "Oh yeah?!?! I graduated from there." WHAT?!?!? OK, first of all, how did someone as clueless as you get into college, let alone finish? Wow.....I was speechlesss. *Shakes head and goes back to staring mindlessly out the window.*Well, I was reunited with my sweet little orange kitty today. Awww......she's such a turd. LOL.I didn't sleep much last night. I don't think I was nervous or excited or anything, but I just couldn't get to sleep. It sucked. I even tried to go to bed early as hell to gain sleep (had to get up at 4:30 AM Idaho time), but I just tossed and turned and then woke up at 4:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. And my uncle Kenny and I are going to the King's hockey game tonight, so I probably won't get to bed until 2:00 AM. That means about 22 hours of wakefulness. Ugh. In the past 2 weeks, I have given 2 presentations. One was on lithium and mood stabilizers (if you are curious about them and have some sick fetish for learning, I can email you the Powerpoint) and the other was on medications becoming OTC (over the counter) after being prescription meds (same story on the Powerpoint- yawn). The first one on lithium went really well and I think I kicked ass. The second one was just boring, but not much you can do to spice up a shitty topic choice. Katie had her 21st birthday and I cooked up some pasta and marinated onions. I thought it was a pretty yummy dinner. Happy birthday, babe!Well I should go study some stuff about serotonin. Sigh..............Current music: Jason Mraz- Mr. A-ZCurrent mood: tired and I have a headache

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1:09 PM

Thursday, November 17, 2005

I am flying home on Saturday morning. So I will write a good blog when I am home. Sorry for the shit post here.